My Beautiful Day

First and foremost, let me warn you that this is going to be a brutally open and honest post, so if you can't handle some intimate details about my life, please leave now, as your negative comments are not wanted. Can I be honest with you?  Looking around our sex-driven society, I have a hard time knowing what direction to turn in raising my beautiful teenage daughter.  I want to encourage her so much to dive deep into her relationship with God and to let Him be the one who fills her soul and fulfills her every desire.  I want to teach her to truly guard her heart, her body and her purity.  Yet I look back over my own life and wonder if the ways that I have screwed up will cause me to not be credible enough to her, or if they will really help her to see how much I desire for her to wait. Let me explain. There are days when I wish I could rewind time.  If I could, I would go back and truly listen to the advice that my mom gave me, as it likely would have he...

There are many promises I make that I don't keep.  Most of them are promises that I make to myself.  Like my current promise I'm avoiding: get the laundry done today. There are promises I make to my husband, too, that I shirk around doing, like putting away the pack-n-play that is still folded up on the floor in our bedroom (and has been there since Friday). However, there is one kind of promise that I make that I always keep.  It's the promise to pray for people.  So often when I'm at the computer I read blogs or Facebook updates of people who need prayer.  If I respond to them saying that I will pray for them I do it immediately.   Right there in that very moment I take time out to pray.  I think it's incredibly important to honor that promise. I know when I ask people to pray it's because I truly have a need that I want lifted before God, and I love to know that I have friends and family who are lifting that need up with me.  I can't...

This past Sunday, April 3rd, we formally dedicated our sweet Ethan to God in a service at our church.  For those who are unaware, we believe (and our church believes) that baptism is a decision that you make when you're old enough to really comprehend it, as opposed to doing infant baptisms.  Instead of a baptism, we do a dedication.  This is where we, as his family, promise to raise him in a house that honors God and teaches of a true love relationship with our Creator.  It was a beautiful dedication and it brings tears to this mama's eyes when I recall the promise we made for our sweet baby boy. This is our family standing in front of the church as Pastor Dave was explaining the dedication to the congregation. Passing my sweet little Ethan to Pastor Dave (who is looking at Ethan on the big screen above us)! Praying over Ethan's life.  I really like this picture - I think it's cool how my sister captured us on stage and on the big screen.  After the ...